[EN] This Master Thesis arises after six months working on the Institute für
Wasserwirtschaft, Hydrologie und landwirtschaftlichen Wasserbau (Hannover,
Germany) under the supervision of Dipl.-Hydrol. Matthias Beyer. It ...[+]

[EN] This Master Thesis arises after six months working on the Institute für
Wasserwirtschaft, Hydrologie und landwirtschaftlichen Wasserbau (Hannover,
Germany) under the supervision of Dipl.-Hydrol. Matthias Beyer. It is enclosed in the
context of the CERPA project which focuses on the evaluation of new market-based
instruments for biodiversity conservation and their socio-economic implications, using
the example of wetlands in Sub-Sahara Africa .
Ecosystems and biodiversity provide a wide range of goods and services. There is a
need for effective instruments to protect them from destruction and deterioration. The
designation of areas as `environmentally protected¿ is widely used and there exist
different kinds of management systems. Among those is the concept of Payment for
Ecosystem Services (PES). An ecosystem service is the general name for goods and
services provided by ecosystems; benefits which are provided ¿for free¿ and do not
normally carry a monetary value. The idea of PES is to encourage the conservation and
sustainable use of ecosystems, by offering incentives to farmers and landowners in
exchange for the responsible management of their land, to ensure the preservation of
the ecosystem services. Under this framework the Eastern Caprivi (Namibia) was
chosen by the CERPA research team as a pilot area because of its special location and
its hydrological and ecological characteristics.
The goal of the CERPA research project is to evaluate the practicability of international
markets for protected area certificates, hence to investigate innovative combinations of
¿protected area approaches¿ and ¿Payment for Ecosystem (PES) approaches¿. To
achieve the objective is pursued to establish a management plan based on detail
knowledge of the natural resources and the socio-economic aspect.
In this Master Thesis, the characterization of the Caprivi subbasin and its hydrological
characteristic are exposed as first step. An analysis of the Zambezi River at Katima
Mulilo gauging site was performed, showing its variability during the wet and dry
seasons. Secondly, mulapos (local name for lentic water bodies in the floodplain) were
determined by the use of remote sensing techniques and Geographic information
System (GIS). For this purpose, a satellite image (Landsat 5) of May 2008 was used and
its mndwi index (for superficial water bodies) mapped. The month of May was chosen
because it corresponds to the end of the wet season; rains have stopped and the
remaining water indicates the lower areas where the mulapos are. The year 2008 was
chosen because it was a very wet year.
Once the mulapos were determined, the water volume that remains in the floodplain
was calculated. Besides, the floodplain was divided into 12 sectors, due to its huge
extension, and the frequencies of flooding in each of them were determined by the use
of satellites images for the month of April each year, from 2000 to 2011. This
information, together with the volume calculated, was used to compare the occurrence
of flooding in the different polygons over time.
Finally, different methods were used to calculate the environmental flow in the Zambezi
River at the Katima Mulilo gauging station. The Tennant Method and the Percentile 90
and 95 are the statistical methods chosen to establish a minimum flow to protect
biodiversity and encourage the permanence of the mulapos in the floodplain.
The literature about these topics in the Zambezi River Basin is very limited; a deeper
study about its flow requirements and the characterization of the mulapos as
characteristic features in the floodplain would be of great interest to preserve its
biodiversity. This Master Thesis is intended to be as a first step concerning with future
research in order to design a complete management plan of the river basin[-]